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SBW Meets: Steve McClaren


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10 minutes ago, TuffLuff said:

An excellent interview @Steve Bloomer's Washing. Felt you asked the right questions and got some really good responses. 
 

Thought the bit about the second season of his Mac1 reign was the most interesting for a few bits. There was obviously a loss of momentum due to having injuries to key players and the new players struggling to settle. Reading between the lines of both Bryson’s and Mac’s interview, personally I think if you were in his 11 you felt really good but if you were on the fringes you were isolated. So in the summer of the play off final, aside Thorne, a lot of the players he brought in were essentially there to be back up and so they struggled to feel valued within the set up.
 

Essentially,McClaren could only work with a limited set of players, in a limited way. He struggled to replace Martin because there’s no player quite like him, so if you set up a team around him and lose him the you are buggered. When it works, it’s brilliant, and for 12 months it was, but he needed the pieces to work together and when they didn’t it fell apart. 

The other interesting bit is about the Jan-May part when it all falls apart. He doesn’t say it outright but I remember at the time there was a lot of pressure as performances dwindled and the Newcastle rumours continued to circulate. What I thought was most interesting was that in about 5 minutes he’s talking about the squad being a close knit group but then talks about how the Newcastle talks didn’t effect them. The problem is many players believed in what he had built there and were very loyal to Derby signing big contracts wanting to see the project through. It was always a case to me that at the time he didn’t appreciate what he had which was probably due to the pressures he being too much that was being out on to achieve despite the key injuries.

Mac2 always felt a bit of a hopeless case, his record wasn’t bad but I think everything was still a bit raw from last time with the added point of dealing with too big a squad. At the time no one seemed bothered about him going but it might have been interesting to give him 18 months to see what he could achieve with Martin and Thorne back in contention and Hughes still at the club

All in all an excellent interview, got huge respect for McClaren and will always be seen in a good light by the vast majority of Derby fans. Glad he seems to have a good relationship with Morris now too.

You have pretty much nailed why any Mac 3 talk should be squashed immediately. 

Hold on to the memories, be grateful and think about Prison Break, the first season was great, 2nd ok, 3rd why the hell are they dragging this out.

If anyone can name a manager that has been more successful at a club during his 3rd tenure at the club I’m all ears. 

Whilst I wait I will be counting down the days till we see our clean shaven proper Dutchman back on the touch line 

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5 minutes ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

The closest I've got is Martin 'Mad Dog' Allen, whose 4th spell at Barnet (his 3rd permanent spell) was his most successful.

Would rather appoint Martin Allen than McClaren again. Probably be useless but at least it would be different.

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21 minutes ago, David said:

You have pretty much nailed why any Mac 3 talk should be squashed immediately. 

Hold on to the memories, be grateful and think about Prison Break, the first season was great, 2nd ok, 3rd why the hell are they dragging this out.

If anyone can name a manager that has been more successful at a club during his 3rd tenure at the club I’m all ears. 

Whilst I wait I will be counting down the days till we see our clean shaven proper Dutchman back on the touch line 

I couldn’t speak highly enough of McClaren in terms of football philosophy, in the podcast the way he talks about how he sees football is invaluable. I’d love to have him in an advisory role at the club or even just talking on rams tv and be around. But, he’s his own worst enemy and that to me sums up his management career. I’d listen to him talk football all day, I’d even take on his advice but actually having him in the main position is a different story. You need that bit extra grit to make you a winner.

He’s a lot like Bielsa, top managers have learnt from him and taken his philosophy on, but his own success is a different story (this season aside for Bielsa probably)

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2 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

It's easy to see the reasons pressure is mounting to bring back Steve McClaren, he's like the iPhone of championship managers.

Unfortunately for apple, Google is the boss these days. ?

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11 minutes ago, TuffLuff said:

He’s a lot like Bielsa, top managers have learnt from him and taken his philosophy on, but his own success is a different story (this season aside for Bielsa probably)

One sits on a bucket the other sits high in the stand. One speaks Spanish the other Dutch, they couldn’t be more different 

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I genuinely believe he should have had more time during Mac 2 as he had no chance to bring in the players he needed and get rid of those he didn't. I feel Sam Rush was probably the catalyst for all the hiring and sacking ever since he left I don't think we have sacked any managers.  

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14 minutes ago, DCFC27 said:

I genuinely believe he should have had more time during Mac 2 as he had no chance to bring in the players he needed and get rid of those he didn't. I feel Sam Rush was probably the catalyst for all the hiring and sacking ever since he left I don't think we have sacked any managers.  

Interesting how in the podcast, Steve said he'd talked to Mel about keeping the powder dry for the season after. Given what's transpired since, perhaps Mr rush was "anticipating" a bigger January spend and that set him unkindly towards Steve.

 

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8 hours ago, richinspain said:

Just finished the first part. An excellent interview and what appear to be some very frank answers. I'm looking forward to the second part.

ps. @Steve Bloomer's Washing, any chance of an interview with Mel Morris?

We'll see what we can do!

We did chat to him briefly outside the away end at Brentford in Sept, and he said he was up for it... but that was before he sacked our captain, we got charged by the EFL and there was a global pandemic.

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15 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Interesting how in the podcast, Steve said he'd talked to Mel about keeping the powder dry for the season after. Given what's transpired since, perhaps Mr rush was "anticipating" a bigger January spend and that set him unkindly towards Steve.

 

Messed up the value of his Wasserman share options I reckon.

Money didn't come in.?

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22 hours ago, David said:

Tell you what, that was a cracking interview. If this starts fresh calls for Mac 3 though I will personally hold you responsible.

Love fact he didn’t shy away from any question, acknowledging he didn’t handle the Newcastle speculation well and genuinely still sounds gutted over leaving Bryson out at Wembley.

Found it interesting he thought it was probably right to let Will Hughes go and sounded more impressed by Jeff Hendrick. 

Also to be sacked twice he couldn’t have been more complimentary about Mel as an owner which won’t be what some will like to hear, didn’t sound like there is any bitterness at all unlike previous managers.

Get part 2 up now, can’t leave us hanging like this!

A journalist friend of mine who was close to QPR at Wembley that day said QPR were literally “punching the air” when they saw the Derby team sheet without Bryson . . . It gave them a lift to see him not on the pitch. I couldn’t believe it either. With Bryson we’d have won. Simple as that. 

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19 hours ago, DCFC27 said:

I genuinely believe he should have had more time during Mac 2 as he had no chance to bring in the players he needed and get rid of those he didn't. I feel Sam Rush was probably the catalyst for all the hiring and sacking ever since he left I don't think we have sacked any managers.  

Listening to him you can't help but feel that it would have been better to hold on.  Seeing how we've reverted to a similar set up and that Chris Martin is still key, can't help wonder what might been.

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